Here’s an interview with the writer from April, soon after the book came out:

Steven Millhauser creates his own realm
AMY HALLORAN
Special to the Times Union
Publication Date: April 13, 2008

Steven Millhauser has a new book, and the reading world is head over heels for it. The author won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for “Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer,” the story of a retail world gone wild in early 20th-century New York City, and Pulitzer fame introduced a host of fans to what most critics call Millhauser’s postmodern realm. Regardless of their literary classification, his short stories and novels are magical tickets, and his latest collection, “Dangerous Laughter” (Knopf, 256 pages, $24), is no exception; earlier this year, it was featured on the cover of The New York Times Book Review.
Millhauser has also found success beyond the literary world for his work; his short story “Eisenheim the Illusionist” is the basis for the 2006 film “The Illusionist.” He also teaches at Skidmore College one semester a year, and lives in Saratoga Springs with his family. We conducted a recent interview by e-mail.
Q: You write about people who disappear: “Eisenheim the Illusionist,” and from “Dangerous Laughter” “The Room in the Attic,” “The Disappearance of Elaine Coleman” and others. What is it about this theme that appeals to you to explore it in many different worlds and characters?
A: People really do disappear. Friends move away. People you know die. And everyone carries around a ghost-gallery of acquaintances who have half-faded away all those kids in your grade-school classes, all those people you saw every day but didn’t really know in junior high and high school, the long procession of dim and barely remembered people from the past. What appeals to me about this theme is that it’s something every life is about.
Q: Along the same line, do you write to disappear and escape? Or, is your writing a ticket for readers to escape?
A: I never write to disappear and escape. The truth is exactly the opposite. Most people strike me as escaping and disappearing in one way or another into their jobs, their daily routines, their delusions about themselves and others. Writing is a way of getting at the things most people would prefer to escape. Writing takes me to the center of life. That’s my invitation to my readers as well.
Q: Although I am hesitant to dig for biographical information from the author of “Edwin Mullhouse,” because the book pokes fun at literary biography, I wonder if there was something in your childhood that led you to write a book such as “Edwin Mullhouse” your first novel, from 1972, which is told through the voice of a young boy?
A: I think of childhood as an explosion of creativity. For most people, growing up and earning a living means leaving all that behind. But an artist never leaves that behind. Edwin Mullhouse was my way of exploring the child as artist and, under the guise of childhood, something larger.
Q: As a child, what did you dream of becoming?
A: I wanted to be an inventor, like Thomas Edison or the Wright Brothers.
Q: As an adult, have you ever dreamt of pursuing another career?
A: Never.
Q: You take off half a year from teaching to write. Do you try to write during the semester that you teach?
A: I don’t take off time from teaching to write. I take time off from writing to teach. One semester a year to earn a living, eight months to fail at earning a living. It could be worse.
Q: What do you like to read? Have your reading tastes changed over time?
A: My reading is wildly eclectic, both fiction and nonfiction, and I usually read four or five books at the same time. It’s always been that way. The only difference is that once I read things like Tootle and Bartholomew and the Oobleck and books about the childhoods of Kit Carson and Davy Crockett, whereas now I tend to read things that don’t have any pictures. A real falling off, some would say. I also do a lot of rereading I love that 15-volume Ecco Press collection of Chekhov’s stories, for instance.
Q: Do you ever find the voices of other writers distracting when you are writing?
A: A very few writers, with extremely powerful personalities, can distract me. The distraction is always rhythmical. It’s like trying to write while listening to a brass band. I avoid those writers Proust is one, Joyce is another when I’m writing.
Q: Where do you get ideas for your stories?
A: I don’t know where stories come from. The whole process is mysterious, even though everyone seems to have an opinion about it.
Q: Do you get frightened the well will run dry and you will run out of ideas?
A: Wells run dry when there’s no more groundwater. Groundwater comes from rain. Who can predict the weather? Not me.
Q: You dared the Pulitzer to change your life. Did it? Perhaps the size of your advances and vacations increased?
A: I write stories. Bigger advances? Longer vacations? You’ve got to be kidding.